Suspension file

ABSTRACT

This disclosure embraces a suspension type filing arrangement for folders constructed from flexible sheet material; a horizontally extending supporting rail is provided which is formed with two parallel flanges depending from its front and rear edges respectively; the flange on the rear edge of the rail is curved in the form of a hook when viewed in cross section; the folders are adapted to be vertically suspended from the rail by suspension members which are attached to each of their upper edges so that each folder will extend transversely of the rail; a U-shaped rod is pivotally suspended at its free ends from the flange on the rear edge of the rail so that a horizontally extending portion of the rod will rest on a side edge of each folder suspended from the rail.

[541 SUSPENSION FILE 75 Inventor: James PQWright, Binghamton, NY.

[73] Assignee: Systems Manufacturing Corporation, Washington, DC.

[22] Filed: Oct. 29, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 193,640

52 us. c1. 312/184 [51] Int. Cl. A47b 63/00, B42f 9/00 [58] Field of Search 312/183-193,

312/291; 49/56, 57; 220/222 X; 248/317, 162, 240; 211/45 X, 50 X, 169, 170, 694,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 925,585 6/1909 Lewis 211/170 2,256,188 9/1941 Berren 211/124 2,910,069 10/1959 Sewell 211/51 2,927,699 3/1960 McGraw 211/51 2,935,204 5/1960 Jonas et a1. 21 l/50 3,021,958 2/1962 Winkler 211/124 3,165,104 l/1965 Zippel 312/184 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 582,961 l/1958 Italy 211/117 June 18, 1974 137,934 7/1950 Australia 2] H124 590,846 6/1925 France 2ll/l23 671,783 4/1939 Germany .,3l2/l84 [57] ABSTRACT This disclosure embraces a suspension type filing arrangement for folders constructed from flexible sheet material; a horizontally extending supporting rail is provided which is formed with two parallel flanges de pending from its front and rear edges respectively; the flange on the rear edge of the rail is curved in the form of a hook when viewed in cross section; the folders are adapted to be vertically suspended from the rail by suspension members which are attached to each of their upper edges so that each folder will extend transversely of the rail; a U-shaped rod is pivotally suspended at its free ends from the flange on the rear edge of the rail so that a horizontally extending portion of the rod will rest on a side edge of each folder suspended from the rail.

1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figures mimtmumamn 3,817,587

INVENTOR ATTORNEYS 1 SUSPENSION FILE BACKGROUND AND BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to suspension type filing systems and, more specifically, to an improved means for maintaining the suspended folders in a stable suspended position, which means will also assist in retaining articles within each folder.

With the proliferation of paperwork in offices, schools, and commercial credit sales outlets, efforts have been directed toward providing filing systems that occupy as little space as possible and yet permit easy access to individual segments of the system. Various suspension filing systems have been proposed to satisfy the competing requirements of conservation of space and ease-of access. Generally, the more popular of the prior art arrangements have utilized a generally horizontally disposed supporting rail in combination with envelopes or folders that are provided on one of their edges with a specially constructed carrier member adapted to engage the supporting rail so that the document container maybe suspended in a generally vertical plane beneath the supporting rail.

To assure that the document container will assume a balanced position when suspended from the supporting rail, a carrier member has been located on the upper or suspension edge of the container above the vertical center of gravity of the container. In other arrangements, the carrier member has been formed with spaced apart rail engaging portions so as to avoid the necessity of precisely locating the carrier on the suspension edge. It has been found, however, that many of these latter arrangements have not permitted quick and sure placement of the document container on the supporting rail, and, in addition, care has been required in removing an individual folder container in order to avoid upsetting adjacent folders particularly where a large quantity of individual folders are crowded on a single rail.

While attempts have been made to construct carrier members that will properly support a folder without requiring exact placement of the member on the suspension edge, once such carrier members have been used in off-center positions, distortion of the folders sheet material has resulted after the folders have been placed in service. Such distortion can be avoided, of course, by constructing the folders from more rigid materials but doing so will undesirably increase production costs.

It has been recognized, that with a properly centered carried member, the degree of displacement of the material supported in the folder from a balanced position is limited if proper balance of the folder is to be maintained thus requiring that a user of the file system take care to evenly distribute documents in a folder before suspending a folder from the rail. Such a requirement, of course, has detracted from the time-saving convenience feature of these filing systems.

Prior art arrangements relating to the field of the present invention are disclosed in the following US. Pat. Nos.:

Heckert 2,483,046

Pesaresi 1,032,526

Lennartz 3,424,167

Williams, Jr. 3,528,715

Spitzig 2,804,212

Zippel 3,165,104

Zippel 3,208,457

Koenders 3,359,986

The improvement of the present invention will provide a useful solution to a number of the problems pointed out above as well as advantages which will enhance the utility of suspension filing systems without requiring material or costly alterations of these systems.

In a preferred embodiment, a U-shaped rod is pivotally suspended from its free ends from the supporting rail'from which the file folders are suspended to extend generally transversely of the supporting rail. The bight portion of the rod is positioned so that it rests against the vertically extending back edges of the folders suspended from the supporting rail to thus impart a counterbalancing force to the file folders to maintain the suspension edges of the folders in a generally horizontal plane while preventing materials carried in the folder from sliding out of the rear portion thereof.

With this arrangement, considerably more latitude will be provided in placing materials in the individual folders in an uneven distribution and a more simply operated carrier member can be utilized to suspend the individual folders from the supporting rail.

The foregoing and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the more detailed discussion which follows, and in that discussion, reference will be made to the accompanying drawings as described below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a rear view in elevation of the filing system of the present invention;

F IG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along lines 22 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a detailed view of one embodiment of a carrier member which can be utilized in the filing arrangement of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring now to the drawings, there is illustrated in FIG. 1 one embodiment of the suspension filing arrangement 10 of the present invention. In this embodiment, a support rail 12 is generally horizontally supported at its ends on posts 14 and 16 which extend vertically from a base platform 18. Rail 12, posts 14 and 16 and base 18 may all be constructed from relatively thin gauge sheet metal and secured together to form a frame by any suitable means such as spot welding, nuts and bolts, or rivets, or the like. Suspended from the underside of rail 12 are a plurality of folders 20, each of which, in a preferred embodiment is constructed from a generally rectangular sheet of flexible plastic material which is creased at the midpoint 52 of its longest edges to form a two leaved folder. When the folders 20 are constructed in this manner, each folder will be provided with two suspension edges as indicated at 22 and 23.

Referring now to the cross-sectional view of FIG. 2, supporting rail 12 is provided with two depending flanges, one at 24 on the front side of the filing arrangement l0 and one at 26 on the rear side thereof. The forward flange 24 is formed to depend vertically from support rail 12 while the rear flange 26 depends vertically and then curves inwardly towards flange 24 to form lip portion 28 which extends the length of support rail 12 as does flange 24.

Each suspension edge 22 and 23 of each of the folders 20 has secured to it a carrier member 30 which is positioned thereon intermediate the forward edge 32 and the rear edge 34 of the folder 20 such that when the folder is suspended without any articles carried therein the suspension edges 22 and 23 will extend in a horizontal plane parallel to the base 18.

Referring to the enlarged view of FIG. 3, the carrier member 30 is provided at its forward portion with a recess 36 for abutting the lower end of flange 24. While at the rear portion of the carrier member 30 there is provided a hook-like recess 38 for engaging the hook receiving lip portion 28 of flange 26.

To suspend a folder 20 from the support rail 12, an individual merely grasps the forward edge 32 and tilts the suspension edge 22 to the position shown in dotted lines in FIG. 3 and engages the portion 38 of carrier member 30 with the lip 28 and then releases the folder 20. By locating the carrier 30 closer to edge 32 than to edge 34, a moment of torque will arise when the folder is released so that the folder will pivot about the hooklike recess 36 abutting the lower end of flange 24 when documents or other articles are not being carried in folder 20 or are evenly distributed in the folder. It should be understood that removal of a folder 20 from the support rail 12 is effected by merly grasping a folder 20 and at its forward edge 32 and inclining it to the dotted line posisiton illustrated in FIG. 3 and then pulling the folder away from flange 26.

As previously noted, should the carrier member 30 be secured to the suspension edges in an unbalanced position, or should documents be placed in the folders 20 so as to unbalance the forward end of the folder the folder may tend to pivot about the end of lip portion 28 to an extent such that the documents or articles carried in the folder will fall out through the front end. To substantially lessen the possibility of this occurring, the present invention employs a rod generally designated at 40 which has a horizontally disposed portion 42 formed by bending a metal rod to provide generally parallel extending arms 44 and 46 in the shape of a U. As shown in FIG. 2, the free end 48 of arm 44 is bent in the form of a hook 50. It should be understood that the free end of arm 46 is similarly shaped in the form of a hook so that rod 40 may be suspended from lip portion 28 so as to be pivotable about the edge of lip portion 28. The length of portion 42 of rod 40 is such that it will extend the length of flange 26 and the lengths of the arm portions 44 and 46 are such that when a folder 20 is suspended from rail 12, portion 42 will engage the rear edge 44 of the folder 20 adjacent the crease edge 52. While other means than the hooked ends may be employed, it is necessary that the rod 40 be mounted for pivotal movement so that the folders 20 may still be easily suspended from the rail 12. When a folder 20 is being mounted on the rail 12, the rear edge 34 of such a folder will move the rod 40 into the position shown in dotted lines in FIG. 2 corresponding to the tilting of the suspension edges 22 and 23. It should be understood that when no folders 20 are suspended from the rail 12 the rod 40 will assume a position wherein the arm portions 44 and 46 will assume a substantially vertical disposition.

With the rod 40 and folder 20 disposed as illustrated in solid lines in FIG. 2, recess 36 of carrier member 30 will be urged into engagement with the lower end of flange 24 by virtue of the weight of the portion 42 resting on the rear edge 34 of the folder 20. It will be clear that the necessity of evenly distributing documents or articles in each folder 20 will be minimized or even eliminated by an appropriate selection of the weight of rod 40. In addition, portion 42 of the rod 40 will prevent documents from passing out of the rear of the folder 20 while the folder is suspended from the rail 12.

While the suspension filing arrangement has been described in conjunction with one type of folder and carrier member, it will be understood by those skilled in this art that the present invention may be usefully applied to other types of suspension type folders. Also numerous modifications or additions could be made to the described structure and all obvious modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A suspension filing arrangement comprising an elongated, rigid, generally horizontally disposed support rail including first and second generally parallel flanges depending therefrom and spaced apart a predetermined distance, with said second flange having a free end that is bent toward said first flange to form a hook receiving portion, and a plurality of article sup porting folders each having a crease and two leaves extending from said crease, said crease defining one edge of a said folder, said leaves having parallel extending suspension edges disposed on the side of the folder opposite to to said one edge, said leaves having first and second side edges extending between said one edge and said suspension edge respectively, a pair of suspension elements each secured to a said suspension edge of a said leaf on a said folder intermediate the ends of said suspension edges, said suspension elements each having spaced apart flange engaging portions, one of said portions having a first recess in the form of a hook for engaging said hook receiving portion of said second flange on said support rail, the other of said flange engaging portions having a second recess for abutting said first flange, said second recesses of said suspension elements being located more proximately to said first side edges of said leaves of a said folder than said second side edges and said leaves of a said folder having a length such that, when a said folder is suspended on said support rail by said suspension elements engaging said flanges, said first and second side edges will be disposed on opposite sides of said support rail, a rod member bent in the form of a U to have two spaced apart arms and a bight portion extending between and integral with said two arms, said arms of said rod member each having a free end bent in the form of a hook removably and pivotably suspended on said hook receiving portion of said second flange of said support rail, each of said folders having dimensions such that, when suspended'from said support rail, said bight portion of said rod member will contact said second side edges of said leaves of said folders to pivot said rod member on said hooks of said two arms out of a generally vertical position whereby said suspension edges of said folders will be restrained from movement out of a horizontal plane by the weight of said rod member resting on said second side edges of said folders. 

1. A suspension filing arrangement comprising an elongated, rigid, generally horizontally disposed support rail including first and second generally parallel flanges depending therefrom and spaced apart a predetermined distance, with said second flange having a free end that is bent toward said first flange to form a hook receiving portion, and a plurality of article supporting folders each having a crease and two leaves extending from said crease, said crease defining one edge of a said folder, said leaves having parallel extending suspension edges disposed on the side of the folder opposite to to said one edge, said leaves having first and second side edges extending between said one edge and said suspension edge respectively, a pair of suspension elements each secured to a said suspension edge of a said leaf on a said folder intermediate the ends of said suspension edges, said suspension elements each having spaced apart flange engaging portions, one of said portions having a first recess in the form of a hook for engaging said hook receiving portion of said second flange on said support rail, the other of said flange engaging portions having a second recess for abutting said first flange, said second recesses of said suspension elements being located more proximately to said first side edges of said leaves of a said folder than said second side edges and said leaves of a said folder having a length such that, when a said folder is suspended on said support rail by said suspension elements engaging said flanges, said first and second side edges will be disposed on opposite sides of said support rail, a rod member bent in the form of a U to have two spaced apart arms and a bight portion extending between and integral with said two arms, said arms of said rod member each having a free end bent in the form of a hook removably and pivotably suspended on said hook receiving portion of said second flange of said support rail, each of said folders having dimensions such that, when suspended from said support rail, said bight portion of said rod member will contact said second side edges of said leaves of said folders to pivot said rod member on said hooks of said two arms out of a generally vertical position whereby said suspension edges of said folders will be restrained from movement out of a horizontal plane by the weight of said rod member resting on said second side edges of said folders. 